Executive Presence In Elections: A Lesson For Business Leaders

In my speaker training workshops, I frequently get questions about executive presence. What is it, how to improve it, why it’s important in the first place. A lack of executive presence is frequently cited as the reason a worker is being held back from a promotion or overlooked for important projects. And feedback about executive presence is surprisingly lacking in actionable detail. Perhaps not for much longer.

Communicating executive presence involves a distinct set of skills, but the measurable characteristics of executive presence are still evolving. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success has been around for a decade and focused on gravitas, communication and appearance.

Enter Scott Hutcheson, a senior lecturer at Purdue University and owner of a training and consulting business centered on leadership. He has worked with 4,000 leaders in 147 countries.

Hutcheson cultivated an interest in executive presence over the course of his 40-year career in leadership training – “before it had a name,” he said. He set out to look at whether executive presence matters in the highest of high-stakes contests: the United States presidential election. This work will be featured in an upcoming book about executive presence.

“After several conversations about who is ‘presidential’ and who isn’t, I decided to conduct research,” said Hutcheson. “I found the results fascinating and others seemed to find them quite interesting as well.”

Hutcheson created a model based on three traits, each with six behaviors. The 18-behavior framework was statistically validated by Dutch partner company Human Insight. They include:

• Warmth: Active listening and connecting with others on a personal level, which helps leaders build trust and foster a positive, engaging environment.
• Competence: Setting the right priorities and being well prepared, which helps leaders demonstrate expertise and reliability.
• Gravitas: Maintaining composure under pressure and delivering messages effectively, which are crucial for commanding respect and inspiring confidence.

Hutcheson and his team of Ph.D. students used GenAI tools to analyze information about presidential candidates. Each candidate was given a score based on the model, then examined the election results.

Bottom Line: Executive Presence Wins Elections

Since 1960, the first election with televised debates, in every U.S. presidential election except one (Bush/Kerry), the candidate with a higher executive presence score won the popular vote. In two elections (Bush/Gore and Hilary Clinton/Trump), the candidate with the higher executive presence score won the popular vote but did not win the electoral college.

Here are the top executive presence scores among candidates based on the Hutcheson model and GenAI analysis:

• Barack Obama (95)
• John F. Kennedy (92.5)
• Ronald Reagan (92.5)
• Kamala Harris (92.5)
• Bill Clinton (90)

In an exchange about the current presidential candidates, Hutcheson points out that Harris’s background as a prosecutor has likely contributed to her ability to project confidence and maintain composure, key parts of gravitas, and her ability to connect with people supports warmth, while her lengthy government experience indicates competence. Although Donald Trump did not score high on executive presence (at a score of 62.5), he demonstrates “a unique ability to connect with a large and loyal base through his unfiltered communication style, which many perceive as authentic and relatable,” said Hutcheson.

The Lesson for Leaders

Business leaders who dismiss the importance of executive presence do so at their peril, because leaders must constantly win the “votes” of employees, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Hutcheson stresses that executive presence isn’t something that’s achieved overnight. “It’s a continuous process of growth and refinement. With deliberate effort, any leader can elevate their presence and influence,” he said.

Hutcheson has actionable recommendations that leaders should prioritize to build a stronger executive presence.

• Warmth: Develop an ability to connect with others by improving listening skills and showing genuine interest in people.
• Competence: Sharpen your expertise and be prepared. This will build your credibility and ensure that others see you as a reliable authority.
• Gravitas: Work on maintaining composure, especially under pressure, and communicate your ideas with clarity and conviction.

I’ll add that an organization’s culture will determine which characteristics are most valued, and therefore most rewarded. My own recommendation is to take stock of the behaviors you observe in successful leaders and determine how to showcase your own best traits without feeling like you need to mimic a leader you admire.